Breadcrumb Trail Links

Six years ago, Seth Mnookin was surprised to learn that some of his well-educated peers ‚Äì lawyers, professors, computer programmers ‚Äì were delaying or even skipping vaccines. The result of his research was his 2011 book The Panic Virus, which explores the history and tactics of the anti-vaccine movement. Mnookin was speaking at he Shaw Center Dec 3. (Pat McGrath / Ottawa Citizen)

Anthropology is the latest weapon in the fight against the anti-vaccine movement. Public health officials are hoping anthropologists can help them better understand why — despite solid evidence that they are safe and they work — growing numbers of parents are hesitating to have their children vaccinated.

The result has been increasing cases of preventable diseases. Last year, for example, North America saw the most extensive outbreaks of measles since the highly infectious disease was declared to have been eliminated in North, Central and South America more than a decade ago.

The trend, which has gained momentum in recent years, fuelled by high profile anti-vaxxer Jenny McCarthy and others, has health officials concerned and looking for help.

Anthropologists, such as Eve Dubé, a researcher with the Quebec National Institute of Public Health and a member of a World Health Organization group on vaccine hesitancy, study the behaviours of populations to better understand the phenomenon. Dubé was among dozens of researchers presenting papers at the Canadian Immunization Conference being held in Ottawa this week.

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

“It requires a new type of researcher,” said David Scheifele, chair of the Canadian Association for Immunization Research and Evaluation and co-chair of the immunization conference. “Eve Dubé is unusual in being an anthropologist who studies behaviours of populations, and that is a new kind of expertise that we need to understand a phenomenon like this.”

Dubé said the phenomenon is evolving in Canada. More research is needed to understand how widely spread vaccine hesitancy is and what that means to population-wide protection against preventable illnesses. Some of that research is now under way.

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

In Canada roughly eight out of 10 children receive the required vaccines by age two.

“That doesn’t sound bad, but we would rather see 95 per cent of them on schedule and up-to-date for things like the measles vaccine,” said Scheifele. “Eighty per cent isn’t enough for optimal prevention of measles and some of the more frequent diseases of early childhood.”

In British Columbia, where he works, Scheifele said vaccine coverage has been declining slowly.

Seth Mnookin, author of the book The Panic Virus, about the anti-vaccine movement, told the conference there is a lot of anxiety and fear surrounding vaccines for a number of reasons. One is a since-discredited study whose author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, wrongly linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism.

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

At the same time, Mnookin said, there has been a dramatic shift in the relationship between the public and doctors and scientists. Many people have never seen the diseases for which children are immunized and there needs to be a better understanding of how people get information about vaccines.

“At the moment we do not have the research we need to know how to effectively communicate with parents who believe something despite scientific evidence showing them that is clearly not the case.”

Parents who refuse or delay vaccines for their children, he said, tend to be better educated and wealthier than average. “What is interesting is it tends to be parents who are more involved in their childrens’s upbringing and health, which is paradoxical in some ways.”

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Mnookin, who has also worked on how health officials should talk to parents about vaccines, said anthropologists can provide an important perspective ono the issue.

“There has not been a lot of study into these type of issues … it is important that anthropologists are starting to look at it.”

Part of Dubé’s research has found that when physicians take a collaborative approach toward their patients, asking them how they feel about vaccines, for example, patients are more likely to refuse. Physicians are being encouraged to be direct and clearly recommend vaccines.

“The irony in all this is vaccines today are safer than we have ever been able to offer. It is curious that vaccine safety looms so large in peoples’ hesitations,” said Scheifele.